Boundary Commission Proposes to put Hartley in Sevenoaks Constituency
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The Boundary Commission is a body established by parliament to make sure that the size of constituencies are as near as possible equal. Every now and again they will review the boundaries of the parliamentary constituencies to see if they need changing.
For further details see their website at www.statistics.gov.uk/pbc/
The Rules
The Commission must aim that "the electorate of any constituency shall be as near the electoral quota as is practicable". But they can depart from this rule if "if special geographical considerations, including in particular the size, shape and accessibility of a constituency, appear to them to render a departure desirable.". They must also take account of any inconvenience caused by a change, or any ties broken by such a change.
For Kent, the Electoral Quota is 69,331 (the population divided by the 17 seats allocated to the county).
Current Arrangements
At the moment Hartley is in the Labour-Conservative marginal seat of Dartford. This seat consists of the whole borough of Dartford, and the Sevenoaks parishes of Hartley, Fawkham and Horton Kirby. Sevenoaks is a safe Conservative seat.
The Proposals
The Commission prefers to follow local government ward boundaries, so where a new ward arising from the local government review is split between two constituencies they have had to make a choice. In nearly all cases the larger part of the ward predominated, so Hartley would have expected to remain in Dartford, but in our case they propose:
"To bring the electorates of Dartford and Sevenoaks seats closer together, and to improve the shape of both seats, the whole of the divided Sevenoaks District ward of Hartley and Hodsoll Street has been included in Sevenoaks county constituency rather than Dartford County Constituency"
This make the electorate of Sevenoaks 71,237 (3% above quota) and Dartford 68,028 (2% below quota)
What are the alternatives?
If Hartley were to remain in Dartford, the electorate of Sevenoaks would then be 66,462 (4% below quota) and that of Dartford would be 72,803 (5% over quota), so this would not be so likely to find favour with the commission.
However there is an alternative. if Horton Kirby and Farningham were to be in Sevenoaks and Hartley to remain in Dartford, then the electorates of the two seats would be almost equal and almost exactly on the quota. The shape of the seat would be improved also. Now the electorate of Sevenoaks would be 69,794 (0.1% above quota), and Dartford would be 69,471 (0.02% above quota).
Because of the electoral quota, merger into Gravesend constituency, which some may like, is not really an option.
Why remain in Dartford? Why move to Sevenoaks?
It is probably fair to say that economically and geographically Hartley is part of North Kent and looks northwards to the towns of Gravesend and Dartford. For schools, police, hospitals, postal services, transport and shopping the majority of people use Dartford, Gravesend or Longfield. Therefore it could well be argued that we have more of a community of interest with our neighbours to the north, particularly on "national" issues.
The arguments for Sevenoaks would almost exclusively revolve around us being in Sevenoaks district for local government. It would also mean that Hartley and New Ash Green would then have the same MP. Possibly some Conservative voters may like to be in a seat that always returns a Conservative MP, but that is not something the Commission can take into consideration!
Can I have my say?
Yes, but you must be quick! Responses must be sent to the commission by 15 June. Whichever case you want to argue, you will need to remember their criteria of electoral equality, convenience and local ties.
Written replies should be sent to:
The Boundary Commission for England
PO Box 31060
London SW1V 2FF
or sent by e-mail to alan.bannister@ons.gov.uk
If 100 local electors object then a local enquiry must be held.
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